


Radio Signals

by aijee



Category: NU'EST, Wanna One (Band)
Genre: Fluff, Humor, M/M, Slice of Life, a modern form of courtship (sort of)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-26
Updated: 2017-12-26
Packaged: 2019-02-22 01:36:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,758
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13156404
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aijee/pseuds/aijee
Summary: The first time Jonghyun gets caught, it’s on a dare fueled by inebriated (and, by that qualifier, very bad) decisions.(Or: Jonghyun buys Minhyun merchandise too many times for it to be just a “supportive leader” thing anymore.)





	Radio Signals

**Author's Note:**

> in today’s episode of “which ship is this multifandom hoe gonna write about this time": indulgent 2hyun because it's good for the soul

 

“Love doesn't drop on you unexpectedly; you have to give off signals, sort of like an amateur radio operator.”

Helen Gurley Brown

 

* * *

 

The first time Jonghyun gets caught, it’s on a dare fueled by inebriated (and, by that qualifier, very bad) decisions because Minki is an enabler by nature, even when sober, which he definitely wasn’t. That, and all the members derive happiness from seeing their leader in embarrassing situations.

Jonghyun has his cap, face mask, and sunglasses on even though it’s ass o’clock in the evening and someone is bound to recognize him from the shape of his left eyebrow or the timbre of his breathing. (“The curse of fame,” Aron mourns insincerely.) But Jonghyun is a man of honor, even if that honorable man is a loser who still fights losing battles because he’s stupid and stupidly competitive with enough liquid courage coursing through his veins.

So there he is, walking into the nearest music store with his “disguise” and honed expertise on dissociation—if _he_ doesn’t think he’s JR, then maybe other people won’t think so either.

It’s a logic that lacks logic altogether, but it somehow gets Jonghyun through fishing out the last CD with Minhyun’s cover from the obnoxiously elaborate, but actually pretty neat, Wanna One display without any repercussions.

 _What a beautiful bastard_ , he thinks affectionately, pausing to admire Minhyun’s beautiful bastard face. _I sure miss this guy._

“There should be one last Minhyun version here— whoops, never mind. Guess he’s too popular.”

A cold shiver runs down Jonghyun’s spine as two pairs of eyes make contact with his retreating and honestly quite vulnerable backside.

“Sir, would it be okay if we swapped?” asks the young girl in a tone too suspiciously cute to be sincere. “My friend’s birthday is coming up soon and she really likes Hwang Minhyun.”

 _So do I_ , Jonghyun wants to say rather petulantly. He even turns around, tugs down his face mask, and prepares his mouth to say it.

This is his first, and certainly not his last, mistake.

 

 

 

 

_BREAKING NEWS! Nu’est W’s leader JR was found buying temporary ex-member Minhyun’s CD! Right now, Minhyun is in Wanna One and…_

**Comments:**

[+481, -51] Omg getting caught buying Minhyun’s CD is so cute~ kkk I can already imagine Minhyun’s smile thinking of Jonghyun~ ^^

[+277, -38] Nu’est family forever! JR supports Minhyun! LOㅅEs support Wannables!!

[+139, -18] Now I have to compete with the nation’s leader for Minhyun’s heart?? I’m screwed TTTTTT

[+12, -51] another publicity stunt to make nu’est seem more relevant

 

 

 

 

The second time Jonghyun gets caught, there is no alcohol. There isn’t even a Minki. So, by every account, it’s actually a bad idea.

But Jonghyun is both a leader and a diehard softie at heart (“A masochist,” Aron amends), so when he sees a cardboard cutout of Minhyun in all of its glowing, lonesome beauty, some ethereal force in the shape of Minhyun’s hand pushes Jonghyun into the skincare shop.

No one recognizes him immediately. Good. It’s both a sign of the changing times (dear men and Dongho: not looking degenerate is normal) and of the still-developmental stages of Nu’est’s rebirth. He doesn’t mind that. The quiet (like Minhyun) is something (someone) he still misses.

Jonghyun’s eyes are quickly drawn to a decorated table on the right side of the room. Compacts and bottles and other cute things are arranged carefully on the wooden stand, from which Jonghyun picks up a small spray bottle of toner. In the center of the display is a laminated photo of Minhyun with a familiar squiggle of ink lining the bottom.

Jonghyun laughs a little. It’s comforting to know that some things, like Minhyun’s signature, haven’t changed.

“Excuse me for bothering, but are you finding everything alright?” a voice asks, jarring Jonghyun from his train of thought. “The yuzu toners are great this time of year— oh my god. _Oh my god.”_

What happens next can be explained in stages.

Three seconds in: the employee’s breathing turns dangerously fast and heavy.

Seven seconds: a nearby cluster of girls start screaming their astounded realizations about, as the other customers realize, the only male specimen in the store.

Ten seconds: every mouth in sight is frothing for Jonghyun’s blood and the pretty price it’ll probably pay on the black market. International fans will take what they can get, after all.

In some ways, Jonghyun could say that he’s too young to die. Chalk it up to all the indie mystery-apocalypse-zombie-romance films he’s gotten into lately. He blames Minhyun and his sarcastic(?) insistences that mainstream pop culture is “for peasants.”

In other ways, the sweet smell of death is something Jonghyun has never been afraid of, especially if it smells like Japanese citrus and the memories of an era long gone.

 

 

 

_BREAKING NEWS! Nu’est W’s JR spotted in Insadong buying skincare sponsored by Wanna One’s Minhyun…_

**Comments:**

[+366, -23] Leader or supportive boyfriend? kkk

[+214, -188] Now that Minhyun is famous Nu’est is greedy for that attention lol

[+98, -8] i don’t know hhh if i want to be minhyun or jr hhh ah so cute

[+20, -52] Jealous of Minhyun in W1?? i would be too if I was Jonghyun

 

 

 

They’re in a small lounge waiting for their next stage recording when Dongho nudges Jonghyun with his foot.

“What’s it going to be today?” he asks.

On his phone, Jonghyun is watching another of Wanna One’s latest variety ventures. Of course, like any well-to-do leader and good friend, Jonghyun is simply monitoring Minhyun’s performance. _His hair looks good_ , Jonghyun thinks.

After some silence, Dongho nudges him again.

“Probably the new keyring lights that were released last week,” Jonghyun finally answers.

He doesn’t see it, but he can sense Dongho raise his eyebrows. “Don’t you already have a keyring charm? The one shaped like Minhyun?”

Jonghyun shrugs. “I’m being supportive.”

“If that’s what you want to call it.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“Well—”

Before Dongho has a chance to answer, Jonghyun laughs at something endearingly innocent Minhyun says. His face feels warm for some reason.

They both leave it at that.

 

 

 

 

_TRENDING! The Nation’s Leader becomes the Nation’s Biggest Hwang Minhyun Fan despite netizen’s criticisms over the Wanna One-Nu’est relationship…_

**Comments:**

[+681, -154] True fans of Minhyun, Wanna One, and Nu’est will recognize that Minhyun is a member of both groups and will support him on both sides

[+522, -305] Minhyun himself signed the contract to join Wanna One get over it

[+227, -189] lololol wannables are too blind to realize that w1 is going to disband and minhyun will go back to nuest. wake up~

[+59, -42] Wanna One is Minhyun going abroad while Nu’est is his home kk

 

 

 

 

Jonghyun is still mortal so he gets in trouble for it.

But he still does it anyway – again and again and again. It’s just for kicks, he’ll reason, and maybe for the free stuff. Who can say no to 25%-off coupons to a barbecue restaurant gratuitously bedecked with posters of Minhyun? These are simply opportunities presented to Jonghyun, and he’d be a fool not to take them.

There are times he gets caught and rightly grilled for being as inconspicuous as a stop sign. At this point, Jonghyun has reached peak meme status for being so blatantly un-sneaky, so much so that he stops trying altogether. Besides, it’s a riot reading what titles journalists cook up.

You see, Jonghyun’s already at about ten years of unadulterated distress; a solid liter of Minki’s morning drool across every house shirt the maknae’s stolen from the other members; and at least a kilogram of salt from the tears and sweat Jonghyun’s body alone has involuntarily shed from every orifice there is.

His tolerance has reached Olympic levels with how little he cares about buying fruity skin water, or beer that tastes like Satan’s armpit, or even the official fucking light stick _goddamn it_ just because the face slapped on his selective shopping spree belongs to one of the few people who made this career choice bearable enough to stay.

Jonghyun has lived too long obediently dismissing the happier things in life, but he’s a changed man now. For the most part.

“I’m breaking into hives just from looking at you,” comments Minki with disdain. He’s eyeing Jonghyun, who’s had “Daybreak” playing on loop since BadEditing101’s finale. “Can you, like, not?”

“Can you, like, speak in proper sentences?”

“Don’t do… _that.”_ Minki gestures in Jonghyun’s general direction with a twisted expression. Jonghyun knits his eyebrows. Minki sighs. “Do I really have to be clearer?”

“Please, enlighten me.”

“When are you going to tell Minhyun?”

“Tell him what?”

Minki, like the true paragon of kindness, says, “You’re stupid.”

Jonghyun huffs. “Why would I tell him that?”

He should’ve learned by now: the innocent move is always the wrong move. He expects Minki to narrow his eyes, gaze edged like a knife, which is as bad a foreshadowing as Aron switching to English when he’s angry. No one would understand him, but it would sound scary enough.

But Minki just lets both his shoulders and his tense expression drop. He returns to an air of softness reminiscent of the night of their first win, when the four of them had dragged all the mattresses into the living room and slept there with lost dreams back on their to-do lists. Jonghyun made sure they brought Minhyun’s mattress, too.

“For one of my schedules, I had to go to a different shop than usual,” Minki says thoughtfully. “Minhyun wasn’t there, but I saw some of the others. They told me that he talks about us a lot.”

“Of course he would,” Jonghyun responds automatically. Everything behind his ribcage has been beaten and weathered, but it somehow drums the same. “We’re still his members. He’ll come back to us next year.”

“Apparently he talks a lot about you.”

“Oh god. He didn’t tell them about Brazil, did he?”

Minki’s unwavering stare finally falters with a small grin. He shakes his head and says, “He keeps saying that you deserve his place more than he does. That you were the anchor of every team and, without you, any team feels groundless. They say he misses you. A lot.”

The words seem so thick and sticky with sincerity that Jonghyun almost chokes on it. “You make it sound like a confession,” he teases.

In the distance, someone calls Minki’s name. He gives Jonghyun one last look, a deliberate one, before walking away.

Now surrounded by an unnatural level of silence, Jonghyun pulls his earbuds out. Any more sweetly-sung “from the moon, to the star”s and his body might actually melt. But it would make for an interesting headline, wouldn’t it?

 

 

 

 

_TRENDING! BTOB, JBJ, Wanna One, and Nu’est W are all confirmed to perform in the 2017 New Year’s special…_

**Comments:**

[+354, -79] All of LOㅅEs wishes came true! All of Nu’est will be together for New Year’s!!! Aaaaaah <3

[+209, -41] First Minhyun and Nu’est, now Noh Taehyun and Sungwoon?? My heart can’t handle these forever friendships TTTT

[+158, -28] My boys deserve all the happiness and love in the world after such a hard year ;~;

[+40, -16] CHANGSUB OPPA I LOVE YOU ;LKJAG;IAERN.LKNAD

 

 

 

 

By the time everyone has left, Jonghyun is still in the waiting room doing some last-minute cleaning.

It’s become a habit of his—ensuring that, as representatives of their company, he and his team’s respect extends beyond verbal statements of gratitude. _It’s the right thing to do_ , he usually tells people. But it’s really because a) he’s not getting the company almost sued (again) because someone (Minki) left behind a plastic severed limb (don’t ask); and b) there are just some ghosts he needs to compensate for.

When Jonghyun finally recovers Aron’s phone charger from under one of the couch seats (“It was Minki’s idea,” Aron will say, rather mysteriously, in the car), he realizes that he’s not alone in the room.

He doesn’t think much of it, assumes that someone has come to drag him to the parking garage so everyone can leave already. “Sorry, I’m almost done,” he says instinctively, “Just had to tidy up a bit.”

“Some things never change, do they?”

Jonghyun straightens himself out, but doesn’t turn around.

“Minhyun,” he greets.

“Jonghyun,” is the response.

“How are you?”

“Well, my pores have been screaming ‘mercy’ for the past twelve hours at how clogged they must be, but otherwise I’m alright. You?”

Jonghyun can’t help but laugh a little at hearing Minhyun’s soft voice say something so sharp. “I’m getting by, I suppose.” He finally wills himself to turn, but he doesn’t look Minhyun in the eye. “How have activities been for you?”

Minhyun steps closer. “Interesting, to say the least.”

“Better than what you’re used to?”

“Busier,” Minhyun amends. Jonghyun can’t disagree. “I know you’ve been pretty busy lately.”

Jonghyun lets out a whiny, drawn-out groan despite the heavy duty mental preparation he’d done in anticipation for this very moment. His ears might evaporate at this rate with how hot they’ve become. Minhyun chuckling and walking over to hug him does nothing to mitigate the situation.

“I have no idea how you do it,” Minhyun muses, nuzzling against Jonghyun’s hair despite the sweat and hairspray.

Jonghyun, even with his chest reaching overdrive, presses his face into Minhyun’s shoulder. “Do what?”

“Take care of me, even when we’re so far apart.”

“That’s what leaders are supposed to do.” Jonghyun squirms a little. “I guess I’m not your leader right now, but—”

Minhyun pinches him through his undershirt. “Almost a decade together and you still have the gall to tell me that?”

He pulls himself away from Jonghyun, but his hands are firm on Jonghyun’s forearms. Even through the fabric of his jacket, Jonghyun can sense that there’s a slight tremble to Minhyun’s fingers, as if he’s nervous that Jonghyun will suddenly disappear again.

“You’ll always be my leader,” Minhyun says, eyes shiny and bright and inexplicably happy under the white ceiling lights. It’s almost unfair, just how beautiful and ethereal he seems against a background so ordinary as theirs.

“And you’ll always be our Minhyun,” Jonghyun somehow echoes.

Even amidst the hardened planes of Minhyun’s face, through the concealed dark circles and matured expression lines, Jonghyun can still detect that childish anticipation for more. A second debut has made Minhyun too confident, Jonghyun thinks. Then he swallows.

“ _My_ Minhyun,” he adds.

“Amongst all your other Minhyuns?” asks the real one, the bones and flesh after which Jonghyun’s growing collection mirrors. He laughs, probably at how red Jonghyun’s face must be. “Should I be jealous of my bobble-head?”

“Aron says it makes a great centerpiece to the shrine we’ve built for you in the dorm,” Jonghyun says, fingers gripping a little more tightly onto Minhyun’s suit jacket. “But I suppose nothing beats the original.”

Minhyun makes some vague noise of satisfaction, an auditory intermediate between a fake gag and undignified sweetness, as he hugs Jonghyun a little harder.

“You’re such a romantic. I hate it,” Minhyun says, punctuated with an emphatic _blech_. “Which means I love it.”

Jonghyun smiles, sighing when the words _I love you_ finally come to mind. He doesn’t say them out loud—he’s not ready for that yet, not now, not soon. There’s no need for them in this moment, not with the way he’s already tucked so closely into Minhyun’s body as if the clock on the wall isn’t counting down to another inevitable separation.

They’ll find each other again, they know.

Sometimes it will take expending rare filming breaks on Night Goblin to grab a sponsored soft drink Jonghyun can recognize before entering the convenience store. Sometimes it will take sneaking out of another of Wanna One’s backstage self-cams to hide under staircases and listen to Nu’est W perform their latest spring track; Minhyun will have heard it before release, but singing it under his breath during the live feels right.

Sometimes it will take unconventional ways to get there. It’s always been like that. They all breathe work-arounds like a second air and they wouldn’t be where they are otherwise.

In the end, Jonghyun keeps his mouth shut, sends Minhyun off with another embrace and a half-laugh half-smile. Minhyun promises to mail a complimentary figurine, right from the first batch, by next week.

Both are different ways of saying the same thing, and they both know it.

 

 

 

 

_BREAKING! Wanna One’s Hwang Minhyun was found buying temporary ex-member JR’s CD! Sound familiar? Since last year…_

 

 

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> thank you so much for reading and let me know what you think :^)
> 
> happy holidays everyone! here's to a hopefully better, happier, and healthier new year.
> 
>  
> 
> [tumblr](https://aijee.tumblr.com)


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